There are many questions which ask for software recommendations; are too broad; or at least opinion based.
That said, keep in mind that my knowledge in SQL is very basic.
I updated the query, so questions which are perfectly suitable for Stack Overflow are very rare, but they exist.
So read them carefully, for checking if the user don't describe it's problem. If you are not still not sure :

decrease the query parameter enough(something like 80, so false positives will be totally absent). You will get questions which will not be salvageable through editing.

Flag only questions with pending flags : You will flag questions reviewed by contributors who try do this carefully, so it is more safe.

Of course, don't forget questions can be reworded to fit the rules most of the time. In that case, write comments or edits the post.

I started using the search engine and I saw very few question had false positive. That's why I created a query equivalent.
So, Let's use it! There are ≈ 400 questions to review!

A Data Explorer query is a terrible way to start a "hunt" because it's not updated in real time. There's no way of knowing which ones have already been acted upon and which ones still need actions. It's literally just a list.
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animuson♦May 11 '14 at 16:01

@BoltClock : This is just to attract peoples on the query.
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user2284570May 11 '14 at 16:03

@user2284570 As I said, it's not updated in real time. Clicking that button will continue to create the exact same list because that database is only updated once a week on Sunday. Half those questions could be closed and the list will be the same.
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animuson♦May 11 '14 at 16:03

I don't think writing immaturely will get you the sort of attention you'd want. Case in point: my first comment, before your edit.
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BoltClock♦May 11 '14 at 16:04

@animuson : do you really think at 10% of the list will be closed before next Sunday? I mean that the probability to click on a deleted question will remain very low. There are many queries on data.se for this kind of work.
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user2284570May 11 '14 at 16:07

Why do we need to query this or organize a hunt? Why not simply close then when we encounter them?
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BartMay 11 '14 at 16:13

@Bart Single close votes or flags are often in vein because of the size of the close vote queue (thus "simply close then when we encounter them" ≈ "simply waste a vote"). Group (or moderator...) effort is the way to get stuff closed.
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DukelingMay 11 '14 at 16:31

3

Does this thing really need to be called a "hunt"? People already have enough negative impressions of Stack Overflow as being a mob as it is. Do we really need to reinforce and validate that impression?
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CupcakeMay 11 '14 at 17:10

9

I'm getting pretty tired from these constant edits that are meant to just push your post to the top. Please fix it for once and for all and leave it alone unless there is something new to add.
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Jeroen VannevelMay 11 '14 at 19:08

3

"insist more" doesn't really read like a reason for an edit when all it does is add comma. Just leave it please.
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BartMay 11 '14 at 19:11

1

@Jeroen Vannevel, Bart: Jeez. I didn't think my very first comment on the question would continue being relevant past their first edit. But I'm glad I left it up. "insist more", seriously?
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BoltClock♦May 12 '14 at 3:51

1 Answer
1

For the most part, it's a gigantic waste of time and effort: most of these questions aren't causing problems. If you observe a question that is attracting spam or whose answers are all out of date or even just poorly-written, great - flag it or vote to close it. But don't dig up graves just so you can pound another stake in the rotting corpse.

Closing often isn't the best use of anyone's time for popular recommendation questions. There are constructive ways to ask for recommendations - most people don't use them, but if you happen upon a question that has attracted good answers, it can be much more productive to just spend a few seconds re-writing the question than in attracting a large enough group of people to close and delete it.

Your query has false positives. Of course it does; you admit as much in your proposal. But you aren't providing folks with any guidelines for reviewing these - indeed, your title suggests that you're just soliciting folks to go through the list and vote. That's... A recipe for lots of collateral damage. As we've learned from past campaigns like this, it's easy to inadvertently create more work cleaning up the mess caused by over-zealous reviewers - if you're gonna propose that folks jump in and help with something like this, be responsible and take the time to learn how to do it right before inviting others to jump on board.

@user2284570 That little "♦" (moderator symbol) next to Shog's username overrides pretty much everything (not to mention that he's a member of the SE staff).
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DukelingMay 11 '14 at 19:16

First, @user, there's a huge difference between closing an old question that we've since learned is harmful and closing a new question that we've learned has the potential to be harmful. Second, there's a pretty big difference between arguing for the closure of a specific question that was once considered on-topic and encouraging folks to close thousands of questions that match a keyword pattern. Third, don't let "policy" override common sense - is this practical? Useful? Finally, see: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/124915
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Shog9♦May 11 '14 at 19:18

Yeah... Big scary warning about avoiding false positives right at the top of that, @user. Why do you suppose that's there?
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Shog9♦May 11 '14 at 19:34

I mean it should have not been left for the third line, @user... And really, should probably have been a lot more than a line. If I can spend 10 seconds stripping a few keywords from a title and "fix" a question, asking folks to close it is a fairly big waste of time for everyone - so failing to point out the potential for trivial edits when asking for reviews isn't good. Follow that up with guidelines for distinguishing questions that ask for a list of things vs. questions that ask for solutions to a specific problem would also be a good idea.
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Shog9♦May 11 '14 at 19:41

Is #1 just about asking for recommendations (in a bad way, that is)? If so, why is this so different from any other close reason?
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DukelingMay 11 '14 at 20:11